An online UFO hunter claims to have finally resolved a dispute sparked earlier in the year among UFO researchers by a mysterious object spotted in a Curiosity rover image of Martian hills.

When UFO and alien hunters first discovered the image in March, 2016, they were unanimous that it appeared to show an alien entity peeping stealthily from behind rocks, apparently monitoring NASA’s Curiosity rover. However, they were unable to agree whether the image showed a biological alien entity or an alien-built robotic device exploring the Martian surface.

But UFO researcher Paranormal Crucible has announced in a video uploaded to YouTube on June 4, 2016, that latest digital analysis and enhancement of the controversial Curiosity rover image appears to have resolved the dispute in favor of alien researchers who believed the image showed a robotic device on the Martian surface.

The UFO hunter claims that digital analysis indicates the object is a “weaponized robotic machine” roaming the Martian surface. And according to online UFO researchers, the discovery suggests that NASA’s Curiosity rover is not the only robotic machine exploring the Martian surface. Technologically advanced alien or extraterrestrial species had landed advanced robotic explorers on Mars before NASA.

Paranormal Crucible insists that evidence obtained through careful analysis of the raw NASA images raises the possibility that technologically advanced extraterrestrial beings that beat NASA to Mars have deployed hundreds of “weaponized robotic machines” on the Martian surface.

But UFO hunters are uncertain whether the alleged “weaponized machines” pose a threat to NASA’s robotic explorer, the Curiosity rover, presently exploring the vicinity of the Gale Crater on the Red Planet.

“Could it be possible that weaponized robotic machines roam Mars… mechanical devices built and operated by off world extraterrestrials?”

The attention of the online UFO community was first drawn to the Curiosity rover image when it was uploaded as one of two images to YouTube in March, 2016, by UFO hunter Frank Van Asch.

Asch claimed at the time to have discovered, in two raw and unprocessed Curiosity rover images, evidence of a mobile entity climbing over rocky Martian hills (see YouTube below).

He concluded that the images provided proof of an alien scout tracking NASA’s Curiosity rover and peeking from behind rocks at a safe distance.

Alien hunters who examined the images agreed that they appeared to prove the presence of a lone mobile figure standing on the side of a rocky hill, watching NASA’s rover exploring the Martian surface. Online alien and UFO researchers argued that the images proved the presence of technologically advanced aliens that arrived on Mars before NASA

The first of the two images was a black and white image of Martian hills snapped on February 29, 2016 (SOL 1267) at 00:41:50 UTC by Navcam: Left B (NAV_LEFT_B) on-board Curiosity rover.

The first of the two images snapped on February 29 does not show the mysterious figure [Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech]The second image of special interest to UFO hunters was a color image of the same Martian hills snapped on March 3, 2016, (Sol 1267) at 03:49:51 UTC, by Curiosity rover’s Navcam: Left B (NAV.LEFT.B).

Alien figure believed to be a weaponized robotic machine is visible in color photo snapped on March 3 [Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech]

“It is there on a NASA site, a government site, which means the source cannot be disputed and thus… cannot be debunked.”

Alien and UFO researchers claimed that the images give proof of a mobile entity roaming on Mars — a biological alien or a robotic scout deployed from a secret alien base to monitor Curiosity — because while the mysterious lone figure did not appear in the black and white image of the hillside snapped on February 29, it appeared in the color image snapped by Curiosity on March 3.

The images shown above may also be viewed here and here on NASA’s JPL website.

Alien hunters insisted that the images proved the mystery object was a mobile entity that arrived on the Martian hillside after Curiosity rover snapped the first image of the hillside on February 29.

But while they agreed that the photos proved alien presence on Mars, they could not reach a consensus whether the mystery object was a biological alien entity or a robotic device exploring the Martian surface, just like NASA’s Curiosity rover.

Weaponized robotic machine spotted roaming Martian surface, according to conspiracy theorists [Image via Shutterstock]“The object seems to be a sort of machine or transport vehicle,” a UFO researcher noted. “One part of the object is clearly visible… and [Asch] wonders whether someone else is on Mars who monitors the activities of the Mars Rover.”

Also commenting at the time the mystery object was first discovered, Scott Waring noted in a post to his blog UFO Sightings Daily, that the figure appeared to be an alien robotic rover with mechanical limbs in place of wheels, like NASA’s Curiosity rover.

“This object on Mars looks like some kind of robot with legs,” he said.

“[It] appears to be in [one or two] photos, but gone in the other two. The object has colors that match its surroundings. It makes sense… having legs to move a rover around might be much better at climbing the hills of the area,” he added.

But in the latest video, Paranormal Crucible claims to have resolved the mystery through digital analysis and enhancement of the image.

The UFO hunter claims that latest analysis indicates the object was a “weaponized robotic machine.”

“The chance of this object being mechanical has jumped from 60% on its discovery date, to 95% today,” UFO blogger Waring concludes in his latest comment on the controversial image.